


I heard a rumour...

by 1PB2PB3PB4



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:47:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23684893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1PB2PB3PB4/pseuds/1PB2PB3PB4
Summary: Allison doesn’t realise what happens the first time she uses her powers, unfortunately for them all, Reginald does. She messes with people’s minds. It doesn’t, didn’t seem so wrong.A brief look into Allison's powers and how it's shaped her personality and character, both during and before the show
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	I heard a rumour...

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even care about Allison that much, but her powers are interesting- just how powerful are they. Also I like that of all the siblings she genuinely tried to improve herself and move on from the role she occupied in childhood. (Well Klaus too after Vietnam could be argued)
> 
> please let me know if you notice any spelling/grammar mistakes and enjoy!

“Well that’s not what  _ I _ heard!” Allison mutters petulantly, “I heard a rumour that you shut up!  _ Because Five likes them! _ ” and that’s how it begins. It begins with a sibling argument and Allison trying to prove that  _ she’s _ right. She is right. Because her powers  _ make _ her right, they bend the will of the people around her and warp the rules of their existing reality.

_ Allison _ doesn’t realise what happens the first time she uses her powers, unfortunately for them all, Reginald does. She just thinks that Five is now proving her point to Seven and One. One said that  _ no one  _ would like peanut butter with marshmallows- but she’s  _ sure _ she heard Five mention it in a sandwich. It makes sense- he likes peanut butter sandwiches and he likes marshmallows, so why wouldn’t he? 

Well he certainly likes them now.

But maybe that’s only because of Allison?

And that’s the problem. Rumouring people is so  _ easy _ , no messing around checking if they're both on the same page, especially if she’s pretty sure they are, don’t have to bother with awkward questions. But Allison is never sure anymore of  _ anything _ , who knows what people were like before they met her, what has she  _ made  _ them into. She’s more careful with her words,  _ her powers _ , these days. But it took losing the most important thing in her life for her to realise just what- no. No, it took not being able to wriggle out of the consequences for her to  _ admit _ that what she was doing was wrong.

She messes with people’s minds. It doesn’t,  _ didn’t _ seem so wrong. Sibling rivalry is cruel, being raised by an unfeeling man who doesn’t see children but tools promotes the practice of mind games. It’s just that Allison doesn’t need fancy words or a silver tongue to turn people’s minds into knots.  _ She’s _ just only ever needed four little words. Diego told Klaus to lick a battery, Five could always be guaranteed to espouse an acerbic remark that would cut deep. She didn’t get what was so much worse about  _ her  _ way of doing it. Anyway, dad always worked to encourage and grow their powers. She just wanted her father to  _ care  _ about her, she was little and she wanted a bit of love and attention from a distant father. She’s like Pavlov’s dog, you get rewarded enough and the thing becomes a  _ good thing _ \- she thinks that’s how it works. It can be hard to acknowledge how  _ messed up _ \- because it is messed up- a power is when you’re being encouraged to constantly work on it and improve it  _ and tell bank robbers to shoot themselves in the feet _ .

Still, she didn’t use them  _ a lot _ when she was little, well not for the big things. Things like “I heard a rumour you left me alone to get  _ some peace and quiet _ ”, little things like that. Little things like “I heard a rumour  _ you couldn’t speak for a month _ ” when Klaus was being  _ particularly _ loud and irritating as he tried to get her to admire Mom’s heels. Allison normally liked Klaus’ interest in fashion because god knows Vanya or the rest of the boys didn’t really care, but that day she was fed up and angry after a fight with Luther- a fight so petty she can’t remember what it was about. So she rumoured Klaus, and he fell down the stairs in Mom’s heels, and had to get his jaw wired shut.

She felt sick afterwards, tried to rationalise it, because she didn’t rumour him to  _ fall down the stairs _ . He probably would have been quiet  _ anyway _ . And it wasn’t like she was  _ really _ going to leave Klaus mute for a  _ month _ . She hung out with Klaus a lot in that month, or well, in the first few weeks trying desperately to make it up to him, despite Luther perpetually shooting her hurt looks. 

Klaus never told anyone she rumoured him, maybe he forgot. Maybe (maybe, and she prays this is true because if  _ Klaus _ believes it, then maybe she can really believe it too) Klaus doesn’t think they’re related. He didn’t blame  _ Allison _ for his fall down the stairs, so it means she didn't  ~~ doesn’t ~~ have to either.

Allison didn’t rumour her siblings for about a year. Then Diego and Luther got into a fight, and she was so scared they would hurt each other. She rumoured them to stop, and nothing bad happened- she made it better, exactly what she said happened. It made her think, hey, maybe it’s not so bad, I can use it outside of missions? So she did.

Sometimes she wonders about the exact limits of her powers, how much can she  _ do? _ How much can she bend the universe to her will? 

“I heard a rumour Five comes back just the same” she whispered one night shortly after he vanished. He’s still missing the next morning however. She cried, she guessed he must be dead. Because,  _ because _ , otherwise her powers would bring him back right?  _ Right? _

Klaus (Four back then) disagreed, he can’t talk to Five’s ghost- and this is before he spiralled into a drug fuelled existence,  _ that  _ was really triggered by Ben. He was still generally sober at this time, his powers worked. Personally Allison felt that even in death Five is an arrogant little introverted shit who thinks he’s  _ above them all _ and just  _ refused _ to talk to Klaus. It’s the only reason she can think of, because why else wouldn’t her powers have worked?

It’s only later, after dad died, once Five has told them a bit about his work for some agency thing, does a  _ terrible _ thought hit her. A 50 year old man stuck in a 13 year old’s body, time travel maybe, but the same thing doesn’t seem to happen to Hazel or Cha-cha. She swallows when realising this, and wonders how much collateral and unseen damage her powers have caused beyond what she immediately knows.

Patrick is right to keep her from Claire, and it hurts. Well, he’s right while she’s still using her powers. He’s still a massive dick for ignoring the fact she missed one (1) therapy session for her  _ father’s bloody funeral _ , Christ. But the thought of how her powers could have  _ already _ hurt her daughter, and the thought of what she could do in the future if she hadn’t been stopped chills her.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Patrick is wonderful, he’s kind, good looking, an actor, funny. They have similar interests, and he knows very little about her past as a superhero.  _ She’s _ the one who brought it up one night when they’re snuggled in bed.

“You wouldn’t ever use these powers on me though, would you honey?” he asked, semi-jokey. She’d shaken her head, because she wouldn’t, they were happy, and  _ in love _ , why would she need to use her powers anyway?

Well, she did use them it turned out- but only for the little things! Little things like, “I heard a rumour, you  _ actually _ took the trash out like I  _ asked _ you to five times yesterday!”.  _ Harmless _ things, things she’s  _ sure _ he wouldn’t mind. So sure she didn’t even bring it up with him- because there was  _ no point _ right? 

It’s not like she  _ really _ used it for the big things- in her personal or her professional life. Yeah, she might have rumoured her way  _ into _ Hollywood, but everyone needs an edge, some people use their bodies, some people use their connections,  _ she _ uses her powers- and what’s so  _ wrong  _ with that? Huh? She’s just using an extra talent she has, it’s not like she  _ can’t _ act. She got gigs after the first few, when she’s running off of talent and her name alone. Well, maybe, except for one or two big ones she  _ really  _ wanted. She took the casting agents out to lunch and mentioned that she just heard a little rumour that they were seriously thinking about casting  _ her.  _ She didn’t even rumour them to cast her- just to make them think about it!

She never told Patrick about it. Largely because when she was still doing it, she was doing it to get on the same films as him, which. Well, it seemed a slightly odd thing to tell him. It rankles now though- not that she didn't tell him.  _ Never that _ . Her career probably would have sunk with her family if she had. But for  _ herself _ , personally. What has  _ she _ ever truly achieved or earned. Vanya’s life isn’t glamorous, but when she tried to reconnect with her sister during the funeral, she felt almost  _ jealous. _ Because Vanya had got to where she was by herself,  _ she’d _ started up her business and got her apartment, and seemingly got out of the academy. Got out in a way her brothers hadn’t- especially Luther and Diego ( _ Vigilantism _ it seems, like old habits, dies hard). Klaus, well maybe he also got out, but she would hardly call homeless drug addiction a success story. She’d take  _ Luther’s _ life over Klaus’, and as much as she loves them both- Luther is still trapped working for dad and she can think of little more in her life that was better than moving to LA. The exception would be Patrick and Claire of course, but she ruined that.

She  _ loves _ Claire, she loves her with every fibre of her being. But god could she be hard work. In her therapy sessions they discussed how, it’s normal for children to be angry or loud or to throw tantrums (another way her and her siblings’ own childhood was abnormal it appears). But back then it just seemed like she was being a brat, and Allison was at a loss of how to deal with it. Patrick always made dealing with Claire’s moods seem so  _ easy _ . She wished it could have been that easy for her, so she’d just. Rumour her, once or twice.  _ Just _ so she’d settle down a bit, so Allison could gather her thoughts and  _ think _ . See despite having grown up with a bunch of very argumentative and volatile siblings, Allison doesn’t  _ actually _ know how to really defuse an argument. She’d just always rumour the parties involved (Luther and Diego most commonly) to  _ stop and make nice! _ And she’d never noticed anything  _ bad _ after doing that. Just some peace and quiet, not like, well, not like some of the rumours. So  _ what was the problem? _

She’d known it was, kind of wrong though. Even if she hadn’t wanted to admit it back then. She’d known, because she wouldn’t do it in front of Patrick. She’d known, because she desperately tried to excuse her behaviour when Patrick caught her. She’s known for a while just how damaging and manipulative her powers can be.

Every time Diego relished the memory of Klaus’ jaw being wired shut and the blessed,  ~~cursed~~ , silence of a month.

Every time Vanya left out a marshmallow and peanut butter sandwich for Five.

Every time she rumoured someone, or something, and didn’t tell anyone-  _ because they didn’t need to know right? Not really? _

Every  _ goddamn _ mission they went on, when she caused havoc with her words, forcing  _ targets _ ~~ not people, never people ~~ , minds’ against them.

She didn’t want to face it though, because well. Her powers are an important part of her- that’s how she was brought up. So, if they’re so bad then what does that make her? 

She’s growing now though, starting to see herself as separate from her powers. Trying to make better decisions,  _ be  _ a better person. Make amends with her siblings. Stop bending people’s wills and minds to her whims. There isn’t an excuse. She no longer wants to use them.

Or well, she does, she achingly does, and thinks, sometimes, just  _ how much _ easier it would be if she could. But, she’s like an addict, one time is too many. No reason is good enough- if you’ll do it for a good reason, you’ll do it for a bad reason soon enough. That’s what she tells herself during the apocalypse. Her siblings call on her, and she  _ refuses _ . It almost feels liberating choosing  _ not _ to use her powers for “the good of the world”. But largely it’s her remembering her daughter, and what her powers did.

It’s the apocalypse though. She uses her powers, and hopes that if the reason is  _ good enough _ she won’t do it for a bad one.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Vanya destroys the moon, and it’s just another example of how she’s  _ failed _ her family.

Five grabs all of them to transport them back through time, to  _ before _ , to try and  _ fix _ it. She looks at how small Five is and thinks,  _ will he have enough years left? _ Will he have enough years left to deage if this is what time-travel does to you. But if time travelling doesn’t make you younger…

Because those psycho agents aren’t any younger. They seemed to have kept their age. It’s just Five.

And if it’s just Five… Well if it’s just Five, and none of them get younger on this trip through time. Then. The thought doesn’t want to be acknowledged but it’s desperate to be heard.

Is her  _ wish,  _ her  _ rumour _ , all those years ago the reason why Five is stuck like he is?

The blue light engulfs them and she’s not sure what age she would prefer Five to be when they arrive.


End file.
